Hitherto, a printer driver has a function to allow a printer (a printing apparatus) to print printing matter with a given stamp mark added thereto (for example, see JP-A-11-296334and JP-A-2001-328325). When printing printing matter with a stamp mark added thereto using a printer, a printer driver synthesizes, before outputting to the printer, print data such as a document or an image to be printed and an image data having a stamp mark specified by a user. This stamp mark is also hereinafter referred to as a watermark.
A watermark that is added to the printing matter by the printer driver can be, for example, character strings such as “COPY” and “FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY”, or an image such as a bit map. Here, by operating the watermark setting dialog 100 (see FIG. 7A) and watermark editing dialog 120 (see FIG. 7B) of the printer driver, both of which are displayed on a liquid crystal display (which is hereinafter referred to as LCD) functioning as the display device of a personal computer (which is hereinafter referred to as PC), the user can add a desired watermark to the printing matter.
Here, description will be given below of print setting used when carrying out a printing operation for adding the watermark (which is hereinafter referred to as watermark printing) with reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B. FIGS. 7A and 7B are screen views which show a watermark setting dialog 100 and a watermark editing dialog 120 to be displayed on the LCD by the printer driver.
The watermark setting dialog 100 shown in FIG. 7A is a part of a print setting dialog 101 for setting various print settings in the printer driver, and specifically, the watermark setting dialog 100 is a dialog which, after an expansion function tab 102 in the print setting dialog 101 is selected, can be displayed on the LCD by depressing a watermark button 103. On the other hand, the watermark editing dialog 120 shown in FIG. 7B is a dialog which can be displayed on the LCD by depressing an edit button 104 or a new button 105 on the watermark setting dialog 100.
When the user desires the watermark printing, the user may check off a check box 106 in the watermark setting dialog 100 to thereby validate the watermark printing. Then, the user may choose a watermark to be added and depress an OK button 110, thereby securing the choice of the watermark printing.
Here, with further regard to the choice of the watermark, by choosing an optional one of four display titles 108 arranged in a box 107, a desired watermark can be chosen from character strings or bit map images which have been previously stored. FIG. 7A shows a state where there is chosen a display title 108a (“Form overlay 1”) which corresponds to a bit map image to be displayed on a preview column 109.
Also, by using a watermark editing dialog 120 shown in FIG. 7B, a character string or a bit map image can be specified as a watermark. For example, when a bit map image is specified as a watermark using the watermark editing dialog 120, after an option button 121a in a style column 121 is chosen, a destination path of a stored location of the file of a bit map image to be displayed as a watermark is input to a box 122 and the OK button 110 is depressed. The bit map image file stored at the input destination path can thereby be specified as a watermark.
In addition to the previously stored watermarks including the four display titles 108, the user can also store character strings or bit map images as the desired watermark. For example, when a bit map image is stored as a watermark which can be chosen from the box 107, firstly, the user may depress the new button 105 in the watermark setting dialog 100 to thereby display the watermark editing dialog 120. Next, similar to a case in which the bit map image is specified as a watermark, the user may choose the option button 121a in the style column 121 and input the destination path of the stored location of the file of the bit map image. The user may then input to a box 123 a display title unique from the already existing display titles 108 and depress the OK button, whereby the bit map image file stored at the inputted destination path can be stored in the form of the inputted display title.
However, when storing a bit map not previously stored as a watermark, there is found a problem in that it is necessary to execute troublesome operations, such as, as described above, an operation (1) to find the stored destination of a desired bit map image file, and an operation (2) to input a display title that does not duplicate the display titles 108.
Further, when the user creates a desired bit map image as a watermark, there is a problem that a special application is required for use in creating a bit map image file. Also, to create the bit map image, the user must start the special application and execute various operations ranging over a plurality of steps. However, such operations are troublesome.
For example, in order to specify text data created by a document creating application as a watermark, the user must carry out the following operations: (1) capture a screen containing a page which contains the text data; (2) paste the captured image into a graphic application capable of creating a bit map image; (3) erase unnecessary portions of the bit map image using an application as needed; (4) resize the image into the size of an image usable as a watermark; and (5) assign file names to the resultant images to obtain bit map image files and retain the bit map image files in their respective given storage locations.